What Just Happened is another foray in the venerable film sub-genre of savaging film’s own industry, in particular Hollywood. Robert de Niro is impeccable and nuanced as Ben, one of the ‘power’ producers in Tinseltown. One of his films (starring Sean Penn in a cameo appearance) is about to be screened in Cannes, yet the closing scene is so dire he needs to persuade his highly strung director (hammed up by John Turturro) to make major edits. Another film, about to commence shooting, is mortally threatened by its lead actor Bruce Willis (played by the man himself, in such an over-the-top performance that he nearly steals the show) refusing to remove his vacation beard. The film follows Ben in his hectic life between sets and lunches and two ex-wives. It shreds every vestige of integrity one might imagine might exist in Hollywood, and some of the humour is laugh-out-aloud funny.
But the script is based on Art Linson’s true-life attack on Hollywood, What Just Happened? Bitter Hollywood Tales From the Front Line, and it shows a major shortfall in plotting. The climax is barely such, and storylines enter and vanish. The direction by Barry Levinson exacerbates the lack of narrative tension by indulging in cutesy transitions. Satire has to be pointed and have a point, and What Just Happened fails on both counts.